phy in the U.S. Army for two years while stationed in
Korea. The education that was to inform his distinc-
tive visuals and photographic experimentation, how-
ever, came from Chicago’s Institute of Design (ID),
where Metzker worked with Aaron Siskind and was
the prote ́ge ́of Harry Callahan.
His Masters thesis and first professional series,My
Camera and I in the Loop(1957–1958), comprised
distanced observations of Chicago denizens in the
cityscape and was immediately recognized by an
exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Such
‘‘humanist’’ observations of people and their sur-
roundings would inform several series, includingEur-
ope(1960–1961),Philadelphia (1963), many of his
famousComposites(1964–1984) andCity Whispers
(1981–1983). Many of these works convey the psy-
chological isolation of city dwellers, especially as they
are dominated by their architectural surroundings.
Hired as a professor at the Philadelphia College
of Art in 1962 where he has been an important
force in photographic education ever since, Metz-
ker moved to the city that he would feature in
many of his works and which still calls home.
Taking cues from his Bauhaus-inspired experi-
mentation at ID, in the early sixties Metzker
started to explore multiple images in his works. In
theDouble Frameseries (1964–1966), he printed
two frames that were contiguous on a roll, often
one vertically and one horizontally oriented, to
create an overall picture. Metzker incorporated
into the composition the black line between frames
and often blended it with peripheral dark shapes.
This use of black areas and high-contrast whites
and grays was to characterize Metzker’s work
through the sixties and seventies.
In 1964, Metzker began to expand his explora-
tion of multiple images, thus starting his best-
known works,Composites, which are collages of
many prints arranged in grids to create unified
compositions. Taking photographic repetition to
its logical conclusion, Metzker made works such
asTorso IandTorso II(1965) that are composed
of multiple but identical prints mounted on a board.
Though these and other earlyCompositesmaintain
an intimate scale, in 1965, Metzker started making
largeCompositesof Philadelphia streetscapes with
narrow strips of multiple-exposed paper prints.
These works did not have identical images, but
similar patterns of lights, buildings, or pedestrians.
Metzker produced a dynamic visual rhythm by jux-
taposing varying images that had some similar and
some disparate elements. InSailing on 9th(1966),
one sees an urban street with repeated buildings and
point of view. Trucks, individuals, and an image-
obliterating white reflection change from scene to
scene. Metzker does not offer a linear narrative;
rather, he gives us a formal arrangement of values
that defies one’s expectations of cinematic vision. In
Sailing on 9th, he repeats the central building motif
four times across a single narrow print. Metzker
avoids deadpan composition by laterally shifting
the repeated elements and introducing the optical
lacunae of stark black or white shapes. The synco-
pation evident in these works marks Metzker’s love
of twentieth-century music including jazz and com-
posers such as Francis Poulenc and Erik Satie.
Along with theComposites’distinctive formal qua-
lities, Metzker conveyed the cacophony and visual
disjunction of urban life. Metzker often juxtaposed
and mounted several prints to make larger works
that measured up to six feet. This scale, which gave
the works the gallery presence of a canvas, antici-
pated the assembled photographic documents of
the conceptualists and the large photographic
works that characterize photography of the eighties
and nineties.
Through the late sixties and early seventies, Metz-
ker made sojourns to New Jersey beaches to escape
Philadelphia’s summer heat. On the sands of Atlan-
tic City and Cape May, Metzker photographed una-
ware individuals and couples asleep in the sun on
beach blankets and chairs. The resultingSand Crea-
turesphotographs show people in a vulnerable, yet
relaxed, state.Sand Creatures: Cape May (1973)
reveals Metzker’s long shadow superimposed atop
a sleeping, comely woman. This juxtaposition sug-
gests Metzker’s self-aware imposition, even as he
recalled of this series, ‘‘I took what they pre-
sented—delicate moments—unadorned and ungla-
morous, yet tender and exquisite.’’
Predominately an urban photographer through
the sixties, in 1970, Metzker turned his attention to
the desert landscape while a Visiting Professor at the
University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. This
study marked a new direction for his work—one
that would dominate his output through the eighties
and nineties.
Sensing that his landscapes were unoriginal, in
1976, Metzker started to investigate formal possi-
bilities for the photographic depth of field. In his
Pictus Interruptus works, the photographer dis-
rupted his scenes with objects that he would place
in front of a corner of the lens. The resulting break
in illusionistic depth forces viewers to focus on the
images’ overall formal qualities, even as they try to
identify the blurry, occluding object.
Since the late seventies, Metzker’s landscapes have
often included out-of-focus foreground elements that
create visual tension or harmony with the rest of the
photographic field. HisCastagneto, Italyworks fromMETZKER, RAY K.